Tribeca Film Festival ’11: THE KITE (Patang) Review

Making his feature film debut, Prashant Bhargava delivers a colorful Indian family drama about a Delhi based businessman who returns to his childhood home with his daughter on the eve of Uttarayan, India’s largest kite festival.  The Kite takes place over the course of three days in the city of Ahmedaabad where dreams, desires, and “fractured” pasts collide to for this authentic piece of Indian cinema.

This is the first film I’ve seen since Slumdog Millionaire that gives us a down to earth view of Indian society.  It properly portrays family dynamics, social structure/norms, and festive spirit of one of the most colorful and lively nations in the world.  Having been to India I can personally vouch for its realistic nature.

While I only thought the movie was average at best, I was happy with its ability to steer clear of the typical bollywood movie trademarks i.e.choreographed singing and dancing numbers in the middle of the film.  There was plenty of music, singing and dancing, but it all was used in appropriate places, like at a party where it would be expected.  I think much of this has to do with the fact that the director was born and raised in Chicago.

As for the visuals, I thought they were right on the money.  This was a colorful movie and it made sure that you got to experience the dirty nature of the streets with the colorful aura of the people and the festival itself.  They way it was edited allows it to incorporate some nice kaleidoscopic effects as well that help to accentuate the joyous scene, thus making the film beautiful to watch.

While the movie was only 100 min. long it felt like a 130 min. endeavor. Bhargava, who acted as director, writer and editor, tried very hard to get many perspectives in the film, utilizing up to six characters and their back-stories in order to tell this family tale.  Had he limited his scope just a little more it would have balanced the movie out and made it a bit more concise.  What didn’t help the broad aspect was that of the six main characters, only three were actually interesting, to me at least, and they were the the daughter, the daughter’s new lover, and the angry nephew.

I did like the use of the name because as much as the movie revolved around kites, it’s what the kite represents that makes it so important.  The kite is graceful, erratic, free flowing and full of energy, it’s exactly like the family that we watch on screen and is a fantastic metaphore for the way they interact with each other.

Overall, I think this film proves that Bhargava is definitely a talented and creative individual, he excelled the most as an editor followed by writer and then director.  Although the movie is just ok, I think fans of Indian cinema will like the change of pace this offers from many of the Bollywood films released into mainstream cinemas today. The acting is good, the music is great but its the visuals that steal the show in this piece of cultured cinema.

Rating: A colorful Indian drama that provides the Indian realism and not much else (5.9/10)

The Kite stars Seema Biswas, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sugandha Garg, Mukund Shukla, Aakash Mahayera, and Hamid Shaikh and will have its first TFF screening on April 21st.

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